U.S. Navy
This news came late last week, but it'd be a shame if it got lost in the shuffle.
The Obama administration on Friday said it would not defend the constitutionality of statutes blocking same-sex military spouses from receiving marriage benefits -- including rights to visitation in military hospitals, survivor benefits, and burial together in military cemeteries.
In a letter to the House speaker, John A. Boehner, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that the Justice Department shared the view of plaintiffs in a lawsuit in Massachusetts that such laws -- including a part of the Defense of Marriage Act, and statutes governing veterans' benefits -- are unconstitutional.
Good for the administration.
In the bigger picture, this belongs on a growing list of positive steps the administration has taken in this area over the last three years. The president and his team, though still "evolving" on marriage equality, have successfully repealed the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, expanded federal benefits for the same-sex partners of executive-branch employees, signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law, cleared the way for hospital-visitation rights for same-sex couples, lifted the travel/immigration ban on those with HIV/AIDS, ordered the Federal Housing Authority to no longer consider the sexual orientation of applicants on loans, expanded the Census to include the number of people who report being in a same-sex relationship, and directed U.S. agencies abroad to ensure our humanitarian and diplomatic efforts "promote and protect" the rights of gays and lesbians.
At the same time, Obama has also endorsed repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, and stopped trying to defend DOMA against federal court challenges.
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This is a remarkable achievement considering where the issue of gay rights and same sex couples stood on the day Pres. Obama was inaugurated. I've never understood why someone who loved a person who happened to be of the same sex was not entitled to the same rights as me or any other person whose object of love, affection and caring was of the opposite sex.
Good for you, Mr. President!
By the way, since they are both residents of Massachusetts, I hope that if Rachel and Susan ever decide to wed we're all invited to the wedding - or at least the reception!
Think back and remember all the so called progressives claiming that Obama was "throwing gay people under the bus."
He has been slow but steady and HE GOT THE JOB DONE!
Thanks, Jim. And if you read the history of the military and politicians after 1948 when Pres. Truman ordered all branches of the service to be fully integrated, the same bullpuckey being uttered now about same sex equality in the Pentagon was shouted back then about black and white service member being treated the same. The military, its officers and enlisted personnel never had a serious problem with integration - the president ordered it so they did it - but racist politicians did.
jim, while I acknowledge that things have changed under Obama's administration, I respectfully disagree with you on the claim that he "got the job done." There is a lot that is still unresolved:
1. While this is an encouraging announcement, I'm wondering how local politics will work. As you can imagine, people here in the Bible-belt-Midwest don't like to be told that they should make changes. Until a formal set of guidelines comes out about how (and whether) to offer me (a same-sex partner of a member of the US military who STILL can't be discharged, even after suffering an injury that rendered her unable to go to Iraq in 2004), I'm in a state of limbo about my own capacity to obtain services, let alone my partner, who is in a permanent state of classification in "inactive ready reserve" (read: unable to be discharged, unable to obtain a disability rating, and ineligible for disability payments/benefits).
2. While it is encouraging to see that things are slowly changing in the military, the civilian population lags behind in basic and important sources of equal treatment. In emergency rooms, same-sex partners have to fight to be allowed to go back to an area in which they can communicate with doctors (and God help you if you don't have one who is willing to "bend the rules" for someone who "isn't family"). Many people across the country can be fired for being gay or lesbian. Many gay/lesbian people cannot enroll their partners as dependents on a health or benefits plan. And, on a day to day basis, many of us have to deal with the attitudes of people like Santorum or Romney, who are trying to use us as campaign fodder rather than recognizing us as citizens.
I do praise the President for his support and progress on these issues, but I'm not willing to say that the job is "done" by any stretch.
One day we will look back on the way gay people have been treated with much the same regard as Jim Crow laws and separate drinking fountains.
Welcome to the 21st century.
Speaking of the 21st century...Now about all this anti-contraception bullcrap........
So true. Even though some black people (like in the Southern Baptist Bible Belt, of all places) will have a heart attack if you liken anti-gay laws to Jim Crow. Most people forget (or don't appreciate) that "Jim Crow" laws weren't on the books until well after the Civil War and Reconstruction, when the Dixie-crats needed to remind the freed men that they were still inferior beings. Couldn't have the darkies getting all uppity and demanding rights...
Same thing with gay rights. While we've definitely had some abominable laws against gays, the U.S. has never definitively codified marriage as between "man and woman", at least until now--Now that gays are getting all uppity and demanding to be treated like human beings and citizens of the USofA.
I just love that picture... *lovey, dovey sigh*
And what's really funny is that I've always hated PDA or at least found it to be incredibly annoying. I think people--straight or gay--should keep their tongues to themselves in public. But knowing that gay couples, especially in the military, can swap all the spit they want--prudes like me be damned--and not have to worry about being persecuted or deprived of the benefits straight couples take for granted is definitely a BIG, FAT WIN for the 21st century... *lovey, dovey sigh, again*
The only thing wrong with the picture is I ain't with them. I do not see anything wrong with love myself. But then I am not a stone throwing neanderthal either.
The only thing wrong with the picture is I ain't with them. I do not see anything wrong with love myself. But then I am not a stone throwing neanderthal either.
Blame newsvine for the double posting.
While these advancements are a welcome change, it would be better to have some sort of legal reinforcement so that the next president cannot reverse these actions. Bush did that with stem cell research and contraception policies in other countries and then Obama reversed those decisions. Continuity of policy is not assured without a legal decision or a firm entrenchment of that policy. This is not an issue that will go away every time we have a presidential election. I hope Santorum is the Republican candidate who will push social issues. When he gets walloped in the election, it will end the religious right's influence over Republican policy on a national level. It will be the beginning of the end of culture wars. The state level is a different story.
I suspect that if Democrats win the White House again this year and retake control of the House while boosting their margin in the Senate, the president will propse codifying much of this into law so a lunatic like a Santorum cannot be elected in the future and change the Obama policies.
I doubt that the Dems could get it through the Senate even if they are in the majority. But another 4 years of these policies will give us 4 more years of changing attitudes and make the policies somewhat entrenched thereby making it difficult to reverse. I don't think the military is going to reverse course after going through this major change. You can't put the genie back in the bottle.
All these little things help, but he hasn't yet qualified for "fierce advocate." (keep trying, Mr. Obama!) As Mike says, these sorts of things need the legal backing to keep them from being simply disappeared under a potential conservative administration.
The man works quietly and without ferocity, but he delivers. I'm so sick of 'fierceness' on the right that Obama's poise and demeanor is a welcome relief: it as the Wall Street Journal itself said, while excoriating the GOPers in Congress, the president and the Congressional Democrats have not changed a single policy in favor of the GOP. Quite the contrary.
Quiet, steady, accomplished.
Obama called himself that.
I think we'll likely see him as a fiercer advocate of many important issues in his second term. I think that right now, he's letting the republicans alienate as many of the independents as they want in their cannibalistic primary season, and trying to keep from doing that himself. I think that in particular is why since healthcare reform, the policies he's advocated for have been "smaller" ideas.
This is a good thing- thank you Mr. President. Now duck, cover, and hold because the @!$%# from the Right Wing will come flying, sad to say!
Wait, I thought this was a 'family' blog! ; )
Remember this in November. Remember all of the right wing "morality" laws both state and federal. As has been noted the President could do a lot more for this country if not for the republican obstructionists. As has been witnessed though, the far right seems to be focused on a state by state takeover. Every election is now very critical. You can bet that the evangelists will be at the polls every time-will you be there to stop them?
Those women look pretty hot!
The Federal government providing equal benefits to gays and lesbians is exactly what Republicans/bigots were afraid of with the repeal of DADT.
Once Federal benefits are extended to same-sex couples, those benefits will be in effect in every jurisdiction under Federal law, regardless of what that jurisdiction's laws are. Even assuming those jurisdictions don't change their laws immediately, they will eventually; probably no more than a decade at most.
And that's assuming there's no SC ruling/s requiring same-sex marriages from those states that have it to be recognized in ANY state.
Mouzer! Hey Mouzer! NOW you can join the military! If you want.
I wonder, if the Obama Administration is going to ignore DOMA for military gays and lesbians, will he do the same for the civilian workers that work for the government? That would seem like the next logical step, and a little unfair if he did not. Just saying...